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Event Information:
The
Ironman event at Lake Placid is the
second oldest Ironman in North
America and one of the most popular
events in the sport. A unique course
with the transition and finish line
located on the Olympic Speed skating
Oval, a beautiful swim in Mirror
Lake, a challenging bike through the
Adirondacks, and an equally
challenging run. Lake Placid is a
village in the Adirondack Mountains
in Essex County, New York, United
States. As of the 2000 census, the
village had a population of 2,638.
The Village of Lake Placid is near
the center of the Town of North
Elba, 52 miles (84 km) southwest of
Plattsburgh. Lake Placid, along with
nearby Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake,
comprise what is known as the
Tri-Lakes region.
Lake
Placid was founded in the early 19th
century to develop a mining
operation based on iron ore
discovered nearby. By 1840, the
population of "North Elba" (four
miles southeast of the present
village near where the road to the
Adirondack Loj crosses the Ausable
River) consisted of six families. In
1845, Gerrit Smith arrived in North
Elba and not only bought a great
deal of land around the village, but
granted large tracts to former
slaves, reforming the land law and
reflecting his support of
Abolitionism.
Lake
Placid is best known as the two-time
site of the Winter Olympics, in 1932
and 1980. In the United States, the
village is especially remembered as
the site of the 1980 USA–USSR hockey
game the Miracle on Ice, when a
group of American college students
and amateurs upset the heavily
favored Soviet national ice hockey
team 4–3 and two days later won the
gold medal. The victory is often
ranked as the greatest in American
sports history. It is also the site
of the Olympic Oval, where Eric
Heiden won his five Olympic gold
medals.
Since
1999 it has been a site for the
annual Ironman Triathlon, the second
oldest Ironman in North America and
one of only eight official Ironman
Triathlons to be held in the
continental U.S. Lake Placid is well
known among winter-sports
enthusiasts for its skiing, both
Alpine and Nordic. Whiteface
Mountain (4,867 ft/1,483 m), in
nearby Wilmington about 13 miles (21
km) from Lake Placid, offers skiing,
hiking, gondola rides, and mountain
biking, and is the only one of the
High Peaks that can be reached via
an auto road. The area has one of
only sixteen bobsled runs in the
western hemisphere, and is one of
the few places in the contiguous
United States which offers dogsled
and sleigh rides - see Lake Placid
Sleigh Rides.
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